For Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News, "Letts' perspective is bracingly fresh. He lets fly so many original and diabolically funny ideas about fear, yearning and relationships that he reinvigorates the family drama and brings it up to date. While he's at it, you're laughing hysterically one minute and appalled the next as the 3 1/2 -hour play flies by. Whether you're from a loving family, a broken one or somewhere in between, you'll recognize every character, each one groping for some sort of happiness." As he writes, "the action swirls around acid-tongued matriarch Violet, a pill-popper with cancer (of the mouth, aptly) who's at once hilarious, insightful and scary enough to frighten Lady Macbeth. Deanna Dunagan embodies her with devastating acuity. Her 12 fellow actors, many of them from Chicago, are terrific. Amy Morton proves unforgettable as firstborn child Barbara, unmistakably Vi's daughter. Sally Murphy and Mariann Mayberry are painfully real as Barb's sisters. Rondi Reed, as their aunt, adds great comic relief, as well as winces of pain. Standing apart from the family madness is Native American housekeeper Johnna (Kimberly Guerrero), whose significance emerges in Letts' carefully calibrated story. Anna D. Shapiro's direction is masterful. Designers Todd Rosenthal (sets), Ana Kuzmanic (costumes) and Ann Wrightson (lights) deliver topnotch work."

Michael Kuchwara of AP said, "Family battles don't get more bruising that the verbal fisticuffs on display in Tracy Letts' riveting dissection of one Oklahoma clan's bleak, brutal descent into disintegration. The savagery displayed by these folks, particularly the matriarch, is venomous, with no relative spared. But don't be put off by the rancor. Their fights are often incredibly funny. That gives you some idea of the gutsy scope of Letts' astonishing creation."

As David Rooney of Variety writes, "Simply attempting a three-act, three-hour-plus ensemble piece with a dozen fully developed characters in this era of economical, small-cast productions and 90-minute one-acts suggests uncommon ambition. Doing so while invoking comparison with the work of America's greatest dramatists - Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' and Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' are obvious inspirations, but there are echoes also of Sam Shepard, Tennessee Williams and a dyspeptic Horton Foote - might seem to be pushing hubris too far. But despite being known for the gory thrills and paranoiac chills of punchy little plays like 'Killer Joe' and 'Bug,' Letts has pulled off this bold undertaking with structural panache, propulsive dramatic momentum and acid-drenched wit that never lets up."

Clive Barnes of the New York Post thought, "the Westons are certainly a fascinating bunch and, at times, if only because of their brutal honesty, oddly likable. Any family that shouts, rants, throws plates, smokes dope and drops into unwitting incest can't be all bad. Certainly not from a dramatic point of view - and the Westons are never less than dramatic." He found, "the immaculate staging by Anna D. Shapiro, and the ensemble acting by the whole cast simply beautiful."

And Rob Kendt of Newsday says, "Letts shows a similar mastery with all his introductions, in a play crammed with characters. But he also deepens and complicates them as much with novelistic nuances as with a series of nasty shocks that keep our attention, and keep the play within shouting distance of melodrama. Given those histrionic heights, it's a joy to report that these steeped-in-Steppenwolf Theatre actors, under Anna D. Shapiro's flawless direction, are the sort of cool customers who won't be caught acting, let alone overdoing it."